Hi, A few weeks ago I went to the innagural Author Nation and whoa, I was blown away by what the whole team did after taking over from 20 Books Vegas. For years, 20 Books was the elephant in the room of any conference conversation, so when Craig and Michael handed over the reins of the event to Joe Solari and the Author Nation team, I was skeptical, yet hopeful, that they would significantly improve the show, or even keep it the same quality.
Hey - I loved your review of the Author Nation convention.
I went to the last 20 Books to 50K. I joined 20 Books to 50K a few years ago and I did write three books. Then ... life got in my way of wanting to publish more. It's still on my roadmap and I look forward to writing at least another 17 books, if not more. I enjoyed writing my first three and going to the 20 Books to 50K conference.
I'm glad that Craig passed the baton over and I would like to present at a future conference. I have some ideas on the technology front that would be helpful to authors and...I'll get to it at some point.
That said, I found you at the 20 Books to 50K conference and I never would have found you had I not gone. I agree with you that the format only seems overwhelming but it's worthwhile to have the massive amounts of information at the conference. Oddly, when one is first starting out, one has no idea what one is even missing. As Dick Cheney said, "The Unknown Unknowns". So ... I went to a lot of random talks -- even ones that I didn't know if I would like or not.
I agree with you that there needs to be TONS more watering holes. I think that it is because of the particular location that the convention is being held at. And I know Vegas is getting terrible at hosting conventions now -- their rates for just everything is becoming extraordinary. I wonder if Author Nation should "go on the road" and pick a different major city. Dallas, for example has lots of venues, cheap hotels and lots of cheap flights. As do many other cities.
They had some decent seating areas when I was there - but I'm glad that this was expanded upon and that they moved the vendor hall to its own area.
But the biggest and best thing about the convention? Meeting people like me. No, I don't mean in a technological or common way. I mean, meeting fellow writers that are on a journey to become published authors. Or, meeting authors that are still on their journey to being better authors. Or, meeting authors that are wildly successful by any stretch of the imagination and, (you guessed it), they're still on a journey of improving themselves...!
I have known plenty of authors that just sit back and collect accolades. These authors are not so common at Author Nation. I can't think of another convention other than this one wherein writers can come together and to hang out and discuss writing.
Now...RAVE....It's a great idea. I love it. It's awesome.
But...NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT. What I mean by that is... It's a sub conference of a conference. And it's not wildly promoted as its' own stand alone conference. And it should be set aside as its' own conference with its' own committee and it's own promotion budget and...yeah all that.
Also...I can imagine it being much, much, much larger than it is. With hanging signs showcasing categories and with author talks and more. That's how important the Reader Nation should be. But that's just my 0.02. I love the idea. I can't think of one that's anywhere close to that kind of an idea. Most "reader conventions" are rather small. RAVE is the largest that I've seen of its' kind. And...well attended (of course) by the authors. I think that it should happen over three days (Friday through Sunday) and to be massively promoted.
Anyway ... I'll try to get back out there again soon. I have some good things coming together finally and I should be free to write a lot more soon. And this is a long way of saying - Thank You for being a part of my writing journey. I have book marked a lot of information that I have gathered from you over the years.
The staff were wonderful. Like you, I loved the couch area. I loved the new space for the vendors. It made it so much easier to connect to people at this show but I miss that list of get togethers that 20 books had on google docs. Whatever it was that they wanted us to use, I can't remember now, was clunky and I had a hard time connecting to people ahead of time once I figured out where it was. I asked on the Facebook group a couple of times and was never told how to find it. And who would think to look back at a welcome email from months ago to find the thing. Not this girl. (until like two days before the show)
I hated that readers were charged to get into the book show on Friday. I wish that wasn't a thing but it does seem like it's becoming the norm. I didn't like the raised price to buy books from the show's website. (it ended up being more than amazon and here we are in person) I paid cash instead. I didn't get a table and was glad I didn't. It was supposed to be 8 foot tables and they were 6. So, very glad I didn't. I did buy as many books as I could fit in my suitcase and carryon.
Why was Kevin Smith the keynote? He was interesting. But he's not really an author. I would rather hear from someone who was a full time, successful author.
I had a good time. I learned some stuff, I met some good folks, but I got more out of the sessions last year. I wish I had March free, I'd sign up for New Orleans. It sounds good. Maybe next year. I'll be looking for a new conference.
Makes sense. I also don't understand the Kevin Smith thing, especially given reasons...I won't say publicly. Hopefully we'll see in at our show in NOLA in March.
I went to the last 20Books conferences, and I had been to a lot of smaller ones, but the level of information about what was going on in the indie space was way better than what I'd seen anywhere else. I was blown away by the information I gathered there (considering how I pulled away from social media during the pandemic, and then went back to school, I had been mostly MIA in the spaces where I would have learned some of that stuff for a couple years) AuthorNation was significantly better. I admit, I'm not great at networking, so when I go to conferences I mostly attend classes--and then spend weeks going through notes and vendor information as I consider my goals for the upcoming year, but I did make some interesting connections and reconnected with some other author friends. It is the most expensive conference of the year for me, but well worth it. Oh, and I agree about the RAVE. I'm glad some authors enjoy it, but without a ton of readers attending, it's not worth my time.
I went to the final 20books Vegas conference last year and Author Nation this year. I was quite eager to see what the new conference would be like.
Travel delays and shenanigans ate most of my Monday but I did thoroughly enjoy the 45 minutes I got to walk around the area and have productive conversations. A terrible bout of food poisoning usurped my Thursday as well so I'm grateful the tickets include the recordings.
I agree it's an overwhelming amount of information but I'm not mad at it. I'm still a fledgling author and after attending last year I had a much better plan this year of what I wanted to accomplish so the event as a whole was less overwhelming.
That said I still felt there was a feeling of The Department of Redundancy Department with the various sessions. I personally can't see the draw in going year after year as some people have. I did reconnect with a few people I'd made acquaintance with last year but many folks I'd hoped to see didn't attend. With the price increases some have said they're reluctant to return.
I also wouldn't buy a table at RAVE again without a completely different strategy, or genre, but I've spent more money on worse and chatting with my table mate was a delight. Though the lunchkit debacle was wholly avoidable.
All in all, I can definitely appreciate what they're doing and I believe it's worth investing in at least once and maybe twice for folks who are serious about being a profitable author.
I think they are going to have longer, and fewer sessions last year. I have heard this but I don’t think I did any sessions that weren’t mine. I was there to have meetings, and so certainly see the value of going for that purpose every year.
Thanks for sharing this! I've never been to an author conference, and Author Nation has been on my radar since it was 20 Books. My introversion holds me back, however, as I expressed to you before. Vegas, while overstimulating, does have the perk of being somewhat within driving distance from San Diego. Getting lost in a crowd also sounds oddly appealing, if that makes sense haha.
I haven't been to this conference before, and therefore, don't know the history of what came before. Glad to hear there's another good one out there.
Only one on my list for 2025 so far is the Toronto Indie Author Conference. It was a great first year last year and it looks like it's growing quite a bit for the 2nd go round.
The timing didn't work out this year, unfortunately. I've already committed to a table at Toronto Comicon the same weekend, but it's on my radar for next year.
I'll be keeping an eye out for early-bird announcements for '26!
Hi. Interesting article, but I have to confess that I have no idea at all about who/what was going on. Vendors? People selling books not written by themselves? What is/was the point of the conference?
Thanks for reading. You can certainly look that information up for yourself. The vendors are listed on their site as are a lot of the attendees, and their mission. Here is the website. https://www.authornation.live/ It's a conference for authors, not book sellers. It's the same point as other author conferences. I'm not sure how to answer that part of your questions.
Hey - I loved your review of the Author Nation convention.
I went to the last 20 Books to 50K. I joined 20 Books to 50K a few years ago and I did write three books. Then ... life got in my way of wanting to publish more. It's still on my roadmap and I look forward to writing at least another 17 books, if not more. I enjoyed writing my first three and going to the 20 Books to 50K conference.
I'm glad that Craig passed the baton over and I would like to present at a future conference. I have some ideas on the technology front that would be helpful to authors and...I'll get to it at some point.
That said, I found you at the 20 Books to 50K conference and I never would have found you had I not gone. I agree with you that the format only seems overwhelming but it's worthwhile to have the massive amounts of information at the conference. Oddly, when one is first starting out, one has no idea what one is even missing. As Dick Cheney said, "The Unknown Unknowns". So ... I went to a lot of random talks -- even ones that I didn't know if I would like or not.
I agree with you that there needs to be TONS more watering holes. I think that it is because of the particular location that the convention is being held at. And I know Vegas is getting terrible at hosting conventions now -- their rates for just everything is becoming extraordinary. I wonder if Author Nation should "go on the road" and pick a different major city. Dallas, for example has lots of venues, cheap hotels and lots of cheap flights. As do many other cities.
They had some decent seating areas when I was there - but I'm glad that this was expanded upon and that they moved the vendor hall to its own area.
But the biggest and best thing about the convention? Meeting people like me. No, I don't mean in a technological or common way. I mean, meeting fellow writers that are on a journey to become published authors. Or, meeting authors that are still on their journey to being better authors. Or, meeting authors that are wildly successful by any stretch of the imagination and, (you guessed it), they're still on a journey of improving themselves...!
I have known plenty of authors that just sit back and collect accolades. These authors are not so common at Author Nation. I can't think of another convention other than this one wherein writers can come together and to hang out and discuss writing.
Now...RAVE....It's a great idea. I love it. It's awesome.
But...NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT. What I mean by that is... It's a sub conference of a conference. And it's not wildly promoted as its' own stand alone conference. And it should be set aside as its' own conference with its' own committee and it's own promotion budget and...yeah all that.
Also...I can imagine it being much, much, much larger than it is. With hanging signs showcasing categories and with author talks and more. That's how important the Reader Nation should be. But that's just my 0.02. I love the idea. I can't think of one that's anywhere close to that kind of an idea. Most "reader conventions" are rather small. RAVE is the largest that I've seen of its' kind. And...well attended (of course) by the authors. I think that it should happen over three days (Friday through Sunday) and to be massively promoted.
Anyway ... I'll try to get back out there again soon. I have some good things coming together finally and I should be free to write a lot more soon. And this is a long way of saying - Thank You for being a part of my writing journey. I have book marked a lot of information that I have gathered from you over the years.
More to come.
I'm so glad you've gotten so much from our meeting and beyond. I'm excited to see what Author Nation grows to become.
The staff were wonderful. Like you, I loved the couch area. I loved the new space for the vendors. It made it so much easier to connect to people at this show but I miss that list of get togethers that 20 books had on google docs. Whatever it was that they wanted us to use, I can't remember now, was clunky and I had a hard time connecting to people ahead of time once I figured out where it was. I asked on the Facebook group a couple of times and was never told how to find it. And who would think to look back at a welcome email from months ago to find the thing. Not this girl. (until like two days before the show)
I hated that readers were charged to get into the book show on Friday. I wish that wasn't a thing but it does seem like it's becoming the norm. I didn't like the raised price to buy books from the show's website. (it ended up being more than amazon and here we are in person) I paid cash instead. I didn't get a table and was glad I didn't. It was supposed to be 8 foot tables and they were 6. So, very glad I didn't. I did buy as many books as I could fit in my suitcase and carryon.
Why was Kevin Smith the keynote? He was interesting. But he's not really an author. I would rather hear from someone who was a full time, successful author.
I had a good time. I learned some stuff, I met some good folks, but I got more out of the sessions last year. I wish I had March free, I'd sign up for New Orleans. It sounds good. Maybe next year. I'll be looking for a new conference.
Makes sense. I also don't understand the Kevin Smith thing, especially given reasons...I won't say publicly. Hopefully we'll see in at our show in NOLA in March.
I wish. My husband made plans that week. Hopefully in 2026.
I went to the last 20Books conferences, and I had been to a lot of smaller ones, but the level of information about what was going on in the indie space was way better than what I'd seen anywhere else. I was blown away by the information I gathered there (considering how I pulled away from social media during the pandemic, and then went back to school, I had been mostly MIA in the spaces where I would have learned some of that stuff for a couple years) AuthorNation was significantly better. I admit, I'm not great at networking, so when I go to conferences I mostly attend classes--and then spend weeks going through notes and vendor information as I consider my goals for the upcoming year, but I did make some interesting connections and reconnected with some other author friends. It is the most expensive conference of the year for me, but well worth it. Oh, and I agree about the RAVE. I'm glad some authors enjoy it, but without a ton of readers attending, it's not worth my time.
It's definitely a wealth of information and the people they bring out are top level for sure. Glad you got a lot out of it :)
Glad I got the chance to visit with you at Author Nation!
Yay! Great meeting you too!
I went to the final 20books Vegas conference last year and Author Nation this year. I was quite eager to see what the new conference would be like.
Travel delays and shenanigans ate most of my Monday but I did thoroughly enjoy the 45 minutes I got to walk around the area and have productive conversations. A terrible bout of food poisoning usurped my Thursday as well so I'm grateful the tickets include the recordings.
I agree it's an overwhelming amount of information but I'm not mad at it. I'm still a fledgling author and after attending last year I had a much better plan this year of what I wanted to accomplish so the event as a whole was less overwhelming.
That said I still felt there was a feeling of The Department of Redundancy Department with the various sessions. I personally can't see the draw in going year after year as some people have. I did reconnect with a few people I'd made acquaintance with last year but many folks I'd hoped to see didn't attend. With the price increases some have said they're reluctant to return.
I also wouldn't buy a table at RAVE again without a completely different strategy, or genre, but I've spent more money on worse and chatting with my table mate was a delight. Though the lunchkit debacle was wholly avoidable.
All in all, I can definitely appreciate what they're doing and I believe it's worth investing in at least once and maybe twice for folks who are serious about being a profitable author.
I think they are going to have longer, and fewer sessions last year. I have heard this but I don’t think I did any sessions that weren’t mine. I was there to have meetings, and so certainly see the value of going for that purpose every year.
Thanks for sharing this! I've never been to an author conference, and Author Nation has been on my radar since it was 20 Books. My introversion holds me back, however, as I expressed to you before. Vegas, while overstimulating, does have the perk of being somewhat within driving distance from San Diego. Getting lost in a crowd also sounds oddly appealing, if that makes sense haha.
It does.
FELICES THE AULHOR STACK
GRACIAS THE AULHOR STACK
FELICES
FELICES Y GRACIAS
I haven't been to this conference before, and therefore, don't know the history of what came before. Glad to hear there's another good one out there.
Only one on my list for 2025 so far is the Toronto Indie Author Conference. It was a great first year last year and it looks like it's growing quite a bit for the 2nd go round.
You should also come to our conference in New Orleans.
The timing didn't work out this year, unfortunately. I've already committed to a table at Toronto Comicon the same weekend, but it's on my radar for next year.
I'll be keeping an eye out for early-bird announcements for '26!
Oooh didn’t know this existed in Toronto. Going to check this out. Thank you!
Last year was the first edition, but still well attended. This year they're moving to the Reference Library so it should be a good time.
Reference library is such a pretty library!
Hi. Interesting article, but I have to confess that I have no idea at all about who/what was going on. Vendors? People selling books not written by themselves? What is/was the point of the conference?
Thanks for reading. You can certainly look that information up for yourself. The vendors are listed on their site as are a lot of the attendees, and their mission. Here is the website. https://www.authornation.live/ It's a conference for authors, not book sellers. It's the same point as other author conferences. I'm not sure how to answer that part of your questions.