The Self-Publishing Conference 2024 Roundup

As the dust settles on the latest instalment of the Self-Publishing Conference, we wanted to reflect on what, in our opinion, was the best iteration of it yet. On the 14th of September 2024, a fantastic group of writers gathered at College Court, Leicester for our day-long conference designed to provide aspiring and established authors with the tools and strategies needed to succeed in self-publishing. The event featured industry experts, bestselling authors, and interactive workshops.

Alongside members of the Troubador Publishing team who hosted various masterclasses in the first session of the day, the conference featured a keynote presentation by Ben Hunt-Davis MBE, our bestselling author and Olympic gold medallist, who shared insights into his journey through self-publishing, why it was the right route for him and his co-author Harriet Beveridge and how they have achieved sales success (at the time of writing this news story, they are closing in on having sold 100,000 copies of the book both through Troubador and their own sales efforts.

In addition to Ben, delegates were joined by Debbie Young of Jericho Writers for the plenary session. A self-publishing expert, Debbie took authors through everything they need to know before starting their self-publishing journey, from choosing the right partner to how to maximise their sales. Her session featured a lengthy Q&A, during which the authors got invaluable answers from Debbie regarding their questions.

The keynote and plenary sessions were on either side of lunch, and each was just before or right after another set of expert-led workshops and seminars. Industry expert seminars were the second session of the day and featured experts from the self-publishing industry. James Mitchell from Shimmr AI, Ben Cameron of Cameron PR and Clive Herbert from Nielsen all covered immensely valuable topics on using AI to promote your book, what book marketing and distribution go hand in hand and why book metadata is crucial to the success of a self-publishing book.

One of the most popular sessions of the day was led by Cam Lennon, an Amazon expert, who explained how authors can maximise their sales through the Amazon sales platform. Alongside Cam’s writer workshop, Ameesha Green from The Book Shelf and Anna Zanetti and Maddie Dunne-Kirby from Midas PR hosted sessions discussing how authors should self-edit their books and how they can create a buzz around them through PR and social media.

Following all the knowledge gained throughout the day, the final session was hosted by our Managing Director, Alex Thompson. His session, ‘Your Next Steps in Self-Publishing’, was looking to help authors digest everything that they had heard and learned throughout the day and distil it into a proactive and practical set of next steps to leave the day with on the way towards their self-publishing success.

In addition to all the sessions hosted by Troubador and external experts, authors found immense value in the time they were able to spend throughout the day networking and sharing ideas with fellow authors. With the multiple coffee breaks and delicious lunch, there were plenty of opportunities for authors to combine ideas and feel part of the thriving self-publishing community.

With such a strong turnout and positive feedback from participants, we have already started planning for next year’s conference, aiming to make it an even bigger success. For those who missed the event, keep an eye on the website for announcements on tickets being released, and we hope to see you at the Self-Publishing Conference 2025!